An Unforeseen Benefit of Hajj

Slate has an interesting article detailing the affects Hajj had on Pakistani Hajis. Researchers David Clingingsmith, Asim Khwaja, and Michael Kremer surveyed more than 1,600 Pakistanis, about half of whom went on the Hajj in 2006. The other half applied for visas, but were denied (in the face of literally overwhelming demand, Saudi gives each country a quota of how many Hajjis they can send each year. Pakistan holds a lottery for these visas, and the participants all took place in this lottery). Each group was roughly similar in terms of the distribution of various socio-economic groups, and all were Hajj-minded Pakistanis; the only difference was that some got to go and some didn't.

The researchers found that returning Hajjis expressed more moderate views on a range of issues, both religious and nonreligious (although mostly religious, which is really not that shocking), possibly as a result of seeing so many different peoples united in what they view as a holy and important event.

Some highlights:

- The Pakistani Hajjis were more likely to follow mainstream Muslim practices, such as praying five times a day, and eschew traditional and tribal practices related to religion, such as the veneration of local saints' tombs.

- The Pakistani Hajjis expressed more tolerant views of other Muslims. Just over half of the Pakistanis who didn't go on the Hajj told the survey team that they had a positive view of other Muslim countries. This figure jumped to nearly 70 percent among Hajj survey respondents.

- The Hajjis were 25 percent less likely to believe that it was impossible for Muslims of different ethnicities or sects to live together in harmony

- Hajjis were more likely than non-Hajjis to hold the opinion that people of all religions can live in harmony.

- Hajjis were also less likely to feel that extreme methods—such as suicide bombings or attacks on civilians—could be justified in dealing with disagreements between Muslims and non-Muslims.

- Fewer Hajjis thought that men are intellectually superior to women, and a greater fraction expressed a concern for crimes against women in Pakistan. (The authors hypothesize that this is "because in Mecca, men and women pray together. By contrast, women in Pakistan rarely attend religious services, and when they do, they're relegated to a separate part of the mosque from the men. Familiarity seems to breed tolerance and respect.")

Go Hajj!

Those Terrible, Terrible Maids

First of all, let me start of my saying that I love maids. Particularly my or my family's (even you, Sussana, who would tell my mother on me when I came home late or was even up and about the house after hours while I was in high school). But, something, anything, must be done to combat the scourge that is foreign domestic workers! Human Rights Watch clearly has no idea what is really going on.

First they abuse the poor Saudis by making unreasonable demands and running away en masse if they aren't spoiled by decent pay and a day off each week. They even had a dedicated series of "Be Nice to Maids" public service announcements.

Now they have turned their vicious eyes to the poor Kuwaiti men, tempting while they work and occasionally inveigling them into marrying them. Fortunately, the Kuwaiti government may step in to protect their boys. Nawal Al-Muqaihit, a third district candidate said that if she was elected to Parliament she would submit a proposal forbidding Kuwaiti men from employing attractive maid-servants in order to prevent them from getting married.

In a more serious tone, she has a point, only in that high rates of out-marriage can threaten a culture, particularly one that is already surrounded by a large number of foreigners. But I doubt attractive maids are the primary cause. If anything, such a measure may be in the attractive would-be maids wishing to avoid h

High Divorce Rate Among Nationals Due to Second Wives

I just saw this older article discussing the high divorce rate among Emirati men. Apparently 31.9 % of all divorces among UAE Nationals are due to the men taking a second wife. According to a study published by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs magazine, 28% of all marriages registered by Emirati men are to foreign women, and most of these are second marriages.

I'm not sure what the cause of this "second foreign wife" phenomenon is, but a few years ago I heard a story about a phenomenon amongst the Taliban, whereby the already-married Talibs arrived in Kabul (sans village wife) and married again to a more sophisticated and exciting city wife. These cases could be the same; "first I married, the socially-acceptable choice, now I marry the one I really like/hot on." Or it could be a case of expenses; marrying within the community costs tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dirhams, something that a man may not want to do twice. Or it may simply be the lack of good local options for a second wife; clearly bigamy is upsetting to the first wives; perhaps unmarried women also find it upsetting, and chose not to marry already-married men (original story here).

Alternatively, if a man would marry again over what are clearly his wife's strenuous objections, then maybe she just doesn't want to be with a man who could do something that upsetting to her.

Anyway, it's an interesting statistic.

PS In case you were wondering, 23.7% of divorces stemmed from financial problems, 34.4% childlessness (trying again with a different spouse. are there no fertility doctors to work out what is going on? Or are these divorces the result of people who have been, and are are seeking a spouse without confirmed fertility problems?), while 21.4% were the result of parental intervention.

Russian "How to Be a B*itch" Training Manual

A little over a year ago, the Western press got itself in a tizzy over Russian "Bitch Schools," which basically teach women how to go after men and get them. For the woman unable to attend such classes or seeking additional advice, there is now a book, as seen in what was supposed to be a new-age, peace-and-love Orientalist shop near my Moscow apartment called "The Way To Yourself." The real issue at hand is how women are expected to act, and what their are expected to achieve themselves, combined with a lack of good prospects and an obsession with becoming "elite."

Translation:
No longer bogged down - the way to go
Be Happy
and Rich!
Bitch -Training
For Love and Money

I Get the HIjab (a bit anyway)

I like Facebook. I joined it over five years ago (I am so very old ;)), and it is a useful little thing, mostly for getting/stay in contact with people. I also like to play ATTACK, which is a Risk-clone Facebook application. This is usually also a good thing. However, on occasion I get really harassed. ATTACK players can see your profile picture, and up until yesterday mine was rather flattering. It is isn't racy, or provocative (its me sitting at the kitchen table in a cowl neck sweater). I got hit on, friend requested, poked, complimented (heavily and oppressively) and just generally bothered. I don't know why, but every single time it was a Turk or Egyptian (with the exception of two times, once when it was a man named Manooj and once when it was a guy from Croatia). Yes, I can say I'm not interested, but it is a real pain. I even told one guy who is 7 years younger than me my age, as in "I am too old for you go away," and he told me I was lying and still kept bothering me. I wasn't, but if I were lying to divert his interest, wouldn't that be a sign to leave me alone? I want to be polite and nice and not hurt anyone's feelings , but in most cases they don't listen if I try that tack. Usually at that point I'll tell them to leave me alone more stridently, and often one of the other players tell them to shut up even less politely, and that often works, but not even always. In one case another player was typing STALKER STALKER into the chat window and the guy in question was still telling me he loved me and that I he wouldn't attack my pieces in the game if I would accept his friend request.

I thought about just not playing, but avoiding something I like because of there's bad behavior doesn't sit right with me. I have now changed my profile pic to one of just my shadow to avoid this fuss. It just wasn't worth it, and my friends can still see my pictures on my profile page.

So I get the hijab, at least a little more. I still think it is the men's fault for behaving so disgracefully, and their bad behavior should be controlled, not the women's, but I would much rather have a shadow profile pic than deal with that stuff or restrict my activities.

Facebook hijab

Where My Girls At?

I and some of my more risk-seeking associates will be spending part of next summer in a car race from London to Mongolia. The whole this is a charity fund raiser and more of an adventure than an actual race (the goal is to finish in the car you started with, something which roughly one third of the cars do). This is going to be fun. However, with the exception of my sister, all of my teammates are men. This is not deliberate; I invited all of my friends, but it was only men that were interested. There are four female members of my polo club, and maybe five female elephant polo players (I am one of two female captains). The only female helicopter pilot I know only signed up for classes because she was involved in some weird effort to stalk me/copy my life at the time My office (IT) is mostly men as well.

Which makes me ask, where are all the women? My female friends are a generally cool group, and are certainly well-traveled, well-educated and generally un-timid, but they just aren't interested in such "outgoing" challenges. I'm not a tomboy, and get along in everything else, but when it comes to adventures, its mostly the men who are interested. Why is this? Some of this is just plain sexism or mixed up gender roles - in elephant polo for example the women come, but cheer or serve as "stick chicks." They get a ladies game at the end but not even those ladies think of playing on the team itself, they just think how nice it is that they also had the chance to play (and it is). But a lot of it doesn't make sense.

Any ideas?